The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in a remote patch of the Indian Ocean is progressing well but will likely take many months because of the huge area involved, an Australian official said today.
	Peter Foley, an Australian search coordinator, said there is optimism with two ships using high-tech sonar devices to search for the Boeing 777, which disappeared in March while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
	He said weather is improving and they hope to cover as much area as possible.
	"We could get extraordinarily lucky and find it very early," Foley told reporters after two days of talks with Malaysian authorities.
	"We could find the debris field any day but the likelihood given the size of the area, we are in for the long haul. It will take many months," he said.
	Despite a massive air and sea search, not a single confirmed piece of debris from the plane has been found.
	The ship Discovery, provided by Dutch contractor Fugro, arrived ...

Australia says missing plane hunt will take months

PTI Automatic

Myanmar's army shot dead a journalist who was detained while covering clashes between the army and ethnic rebels at the rugged border, saying he reached for a soldier's gun during an attempted escape, the press council said today.
	It released a military statement that said Aung Naing was arrested September 30 after an attack on the army near Kyaikmaraw in Mon state, and that an interrogation revealed he was an information officer for an armed ethnic Karen group.
	The statement said he was killed on Oct. 4, and that his body had been properly buried near a village.
	It's not clear why the information was only now released. The interim press council was formed under the aegis of the president and asked for the military's information last week.
	"We are saddened by this news," council member Zaw Thet Htway said, asking how the military decided unilaterally to bury the body and why it waited to release the information. "Whether he was a journalist or an officer from an armed group, this .

Myanmar army kills journalist it calls Karen rebel

Prosecutors in the Oscar Pistorius case have consulted with a criminal law expert over a possible appeal, which means the Olympic runner could face a murder conviction again.
	Prosecution spokesman Nathi Mncube confirmed today that chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel has consulted with Prof James Grant over appealing.
	Grant wrote on Twitter that he has advised Nel to appeal and agreed to assist prosecutors.
	Criminal experts have said there may be grounds for prosecutors to appeal Judge Thokozile Masipa's decision to acquit Pistorius of murder for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Masipa instead found the double-amputee athlete guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
	Pistorius was given a five-year prison sentence. He faces a minimum of 15 years in jail if found guilty of murder on appeal.

Pistorius prosecutors consult expert over appeal

Police in southern Poland say three bodies have been recovered from an apartment building apparently shattered by a gas explosion.
	Jacek Pytel, a police spokesman in Katowice, said Friday that rescuers have recovered the bodies of a man, a woman and a child from the rubble.
	TVN24 identified the victims as their Katowice reporter, Dariusz Kmiecik, his wife Brygida Frosztega-Kmiecik, who was a state TVP journalist, and their 2-year-old son.
	Five people remain hospitalized, one in serious condition with burns, following the blast yesterday.
	Firefighters say the nature and scope of the damage suggests it was an explosion of a large amount of gas.

Family of 3 killed in gas explosion in Poland

Danish officials said they have arrested two men in possession of one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosive material but it doesn't appear to be terrorism-related.
	Copenhagen police said today on Twitter that the Danish nationals were arrested separately yesterday morning.
	Police found two packs of 500 grams of explosives in the apartment of a 33-year-old man of Pakistani descent. The other suspect, aged 31, was described as having ties to the Danish military.
	In a television interview, investigator Jens Moeller was asked by the TV2 channel whether it could be terror related, to which replied, "we have nothing indicating that."
	Earlier in the day, Danish broadcaster DR cited prosecutor Stig Fleischer as saying that the case likely "an ordinary criminal case."
	The men will face a custody hearing later today.

Two arrested after explosives found in Denmark

Swedish authorities say they have called off their weeklong search for a suspected submarine in the Stockholm archipelago.
	Military authorities said today that they have ordered naval and amphibious forces to end their hunt for the submarine, though some ground forces will remain involved.
	Sweden's military launched its biggest anti-submarine operation since the twilight of the Soviet Union last Friday after receiving credible reports of foreign underwater activity in the archipelago that extends from the capital, Stockholm, into the Baltic Sea.
	Military officials haven't blamed any country for the suspected intrusion, though most Swedish defense analysts say Russia would be a likely culprit.
	Sweden built up an anti-submarine force after a Soviet sub with nuclear weapons ran aground off its southern shores in 1981 but started dismantling it as part of deep cuts in defense spending after the Cold War ended.
	Anti-submarine helicopters were phased out in 2008 and replacements are ...

Sweden calls off search for submarine

Police in Afghanistan said that five people were killed and two injured when gunmen opened fire on a car in the eastern province of Nangahar today.
	The attack took place as the car carrying a total of seven civilians was driving through Khogyani district around 6 am, said the spokesman for the provincial police, Hazrat Hussain Mashraqiwal.
	He said that the attack was carried out by "insurgents," the term usually used to refer to the Taliban, and that police were investigating.
	Nangahar province borders Pakistan, where the leadership of the Taliban insurgency is based. Khogyani is nestled in the mountains that line the border and has long been a hotbed of insurgent activity.

Insurgents kill 5 in attack in Afghanistan: police

Authorities in Malaysia say a man seriously injured in a car accident crawled through jungle for three days before happening upon an isolated village.
	Police chief Som Sak Din Keliaw said the man, identified as Nicholas Andrew, showed up at the village on Wednesday, after the car he was driving sped off a highway into a ravine early Sunday morning.
	Keliaw says Andrew broke his arm and leg and a passenger was killed.
	Andrew then crawled close to a river until he reached the village in central Malaysia.
	Andrew told local media from his hospital bed the accident happened after he had been delivering wedding invitations.
	He said after regaining consciousness following the smash that he called for his friend, got no response and then decided to "crawl for help.

Malaysian man crawls for 3 days after car smash

The Obama administration is preparing to transfer a military detainee in Afghanistan for criminal trial in the state of Virginia, US officials have said.
	The move would mark the first time a military detainee from Afghanistan was brought to the US for trial, and it represents the Obama administration's latest attempt to show that it can use the criminal court system to deal with terror suspects.
	The prisoner, known by the nom de guerre Irek Hamidullan, is a Russian veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan who defected to the Taliban and stayed in the country, US officials said. He was captured in 2009 after an attack on Afghan border police and US soldiers in Khost province, officials said yesterday.
	He has been in held at the US Parwan detention facility at Bagram airfield ever since. He faces up to life in prison on several charges relating to the 2009 attack, and faces trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington.
	The congressional and administration ...

Prisoner in Afghanistan to be tried in US

The president of Cyprus was admitted to a hospital in Brussels today and unable to attend a European Union summit there.
	President Nicos Anastasiades suffered a nosebleed and underwent nasal cauterization at the hospital, where he opted to stay overnight "for clearly precautionary reasons," said government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides.
	Anastasiades, 68, was in "good health," and the decision to remain hospitalized was his, not his doctors, said Christodoulides.
	Doctors advised Anastasiades to rest for two days.
	He had traveled to Brussels to attend the two-day EU summit, which began today. But he will be represented there by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, said Christodoulides.

Cyprus president hospitalised in Brussels

The plane carrying a top French oil executive and a crew of three was already in the air when it grazed a snowplow, just failing to avoid the fatal crash, Russian crash investigators said today.
	Monday night's collision that killed Total SA CEO Christophe de Margerie and all the crew on his jet has been seen not only as a tragedy but as an embarrassment for Russia at a time of strained relations with the West.
	The director general of Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and his deputy resigned today and investigators detained four more of its employees in addition to the snowplow's driver.
	Alexei Morozov, head of investigations at the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee, told reporters today that the snowplow had driven without permission into a junction of two runways at Vnukovo Airport seconds before the crash while the plane was already accelerating on the runway.
	"The runway was clear when a traffic controller gave permission for takeoff," Morozov said, adding there was no ...

Report: Total CEO's plane almost escaped crash

The Lebanese government says the tiny Mediterranean country will not accept any more Syrian refugees except for what authorities deem to be "exceptional" cases.
	Today's statement by Information Minister Ramzi Jreij says Lebanon cannot handle any more refugees.
	There are some 1.1 million Syrian refugees officially registered in Lebanon, making up almost a quarter of the country's population.
	Jreij says the government will ask the UN refugee agency not to register any more cases in Lebanon and that Syrian refugees already here would be "encouraged to return to their country" or go elsewhere.
	The Syrian civil war has had an enormous impact on Lebanon. The refugees have stretched the country's already fragile infrastructure and are competing with Lebanon's poorest for low-paid jobs.

Lebanon says it won't accept more Syrian refugees

Oscar Pistorius' agent is seeking a prison meeting with the double-amputee athlete in the next few days to discuss his career, with South Africa's Olympic committee saying today the runner cannot compete for the full five years of his jail sentence.
	The decision of the South African Olympic body matches that of the International Paralympic Committee, which said Pistorius cannot run in its events for five years while serving his sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, even if he is released early to go under house arrest.
	Agent Peet van Zyl told The Associated Press that lawyers will meet with Pistorius in prison tomorrow.
	After that it will become clearer when Van Zyl and Pistorius' longtime track coach, Ampie Louw, can talk to him about his running future, he said.
	"We would like to see the young man," Van Zyl said.
	Van Zyl said no discussions have been held over the Olympian and multiple Paralympic champion's track career because Pistorius was taken straight to prison .

Pistorius, agent to have prison talks over career

Nokia is showing signs that it has turned around its fortunes following the sale of its ailing cellphone unit to Microsoft.
	The slimmed-down Finnish company said today that it made a third-quarter net profit of 747 million euros (USD 950 million) of the year, compared with a 91 million-euro loss in the same period last year.
	The result beat expectations and Nokia Corp. Stock rose more than 3.6 per cent to 6.75 euros in late trading in Helsinki. The profit came despite a 1.2 billion-euro impairment charge following revaluing the Here mapping and locations services.
	CEO Rajeev Suri said he was pleased to note strong growth in Nokia's three remaining operations networks, mapping and software. Revenue in the third quarter grew 13 per cent to 3.3 billion euros, from 2.9 billion a year earlier.
	Suri said he was particularly satisfied by the performance of the key networks sector, which recorded near-record profits.
	He added that the division, which accounts for 90 per cent of Nokia's ..

Nokia turnaround since handset unit sale continues

Petra Kvitova beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-2 at the WTA Finals on Thursday, further eroding the Russian player's hopes of claiming the year-end No. 1 ranking.
     Sharapova, who needs to win the title and rely on Serena Williams not reaching the final in Singapore to overtake the American for top spot, fell to a 0-2 record while Kvitova is 1-1 in the White Group round-robin stage.
     In order for Sharapova to progress to the semifinals, she will need to win her last match against Agnieszka Radwanska and rely on Caroline Wozniacki beating Kvitova, and have both matches decided in straight sets.
     Sharapova, who lost the Wimbledon final to Kvitova in 2011, had beaten the Czech left-hander in their past five meetings and started brightly by winning the opening two games. But Kvitova took over from there, winning 11 of the next 12 games.
     Kvitova said she was feeling burnt out during her first-round loss to Radwanska, so took an unusual approach to freshen up for Thursday's ...

Kvitova beats Sharapova 6-3, 6-2 at WTA Finals

Authorities say one person was killed and 11 were injured in an explosion after a gas pipe was damaged during construction work in a western German city.
	Police in Ludwigshafen said the explosion outside a house in the city happened midday today. Gas transport company Gascade said it wasn't clear why the gas pipe, part of a 57-kilometer pipeline that leads southward to the city of Karlsruhe, was damaged during work that it commissioned. Gas then leaked and caught fire.
	Police said the main fire at the site was extinguished by late afternoon and smaller fires were under control.

1 killed, 11 injured in German gas pipe explosion

A coin toss has decided the mayoral race in small town high in the Peruvian Andes after two candidates tied at the ballot box.
	Wilber Medina was chosen mayor of Pillpinto near the tourist center of Cusco yesterday after he and his rival each garnered 236 votes in municipal elections this month.
	Peru's electoral law allows for tied races to be decided by a coin toss.
	The 40-year-old teacher said he'll work to earn voters' trust. His rival Jose Cornejo accepted the results.

Heads or tails? Coin toss decides Peru election

A video of a pair of duelling, dancing American priests studying in Rome has gone viral, following in the footsteps of a now-famous Italian nun whose Alicia Keys-esque voice won her a singing contest and a record contract.
	The Rev David Rider, 29, of Hyde Park, New York, and the Rev John Gibson, 28, of Milwaukee, first shot to Internet fame when they were filmed in April during a fundraiser at the North American College, the elite American seminary up the hill from the Vatican.
	Rider warmed up the crowd with a lively tap-dance routine, only to be pushed aside by Gibson's fast-footed Irish dance. Soon they were battling it out, trying to impress the crowd. At the back of the room, journalist Joan Lewis recorded the event and later posted on YouTube.
	"All of a sudden the numbers started rising and rising," Lewis told The Associated Press. The video has nearly 260,000 views.
	Their Internet success has drawn comparisons to Sr Cristina Scuccia, who won the Italian edition of "The ...

Dancing priests become Internet sensation

The mother of the man accused of killing a soldier at Ottawa's war memorial then storming Parliament before being shot dead says she is crying for the victims of the shooting, not her son.
	In a brief and tear-filled telephone interview with The Associated Press today, Susan Bibeau said she did not know what to say to those hurt in the attack.
	"Can you ever explain something like this?" she said. "We are sorry."
	Investigators offered little information about the gunman in Ottawa, identified as 32-year-old petty criminal Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
	Canadian police conceded today that Zehaf-Bibeau was the lone gunman, the second attack in three days in what the prime minister described as terrorism.
	The heart of the capital city of Ottawa had been in lockdown after yesterday's attack, with fears that other gunmen might be on the loose. Ottawa police Constable Marc Soucy confirmed to The Associated Press today that police are satisfied there was one attacker. Ottawa police Chief Charles ...

Mom of Canada suspect: I cry for victims, not son

Seventeen officials have been punished in southwest China after one of the most violent land conflicts in recent years left eight people dead.
	The official Xinhua News Agency said today that one official involved in the clash between villagers and construction workers on October 14 has been arrested. The other 16 have been punished for neglect of duty.
	The clash centered on a standoff between villagers and a property developer. Authorities previously said villagers detained several construction workers and burned four of them to death. Two other workers and two villagers also died.
	Land disputes are common in China. The government technically owns most land and can seize property for projects deemed in the public interest. Villagers, left with no means to seek redress, often resort to violence.

China punishes 17 officials for village clash

China said today it was against referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court, dimming chances that its longtime ally will face additional scrutiny over its dismal and well-documented system of sprawling political prison camps, starvation and mass executions.
	The UN General Assembly's human rights committee is considering a resolution calling on the Security Council to refer Pyongyang to the court, a step that would mark the global community's strongest effort so far against the North's human rights record.
	However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China believes disputes over human rights issues should be handled through "dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
	"We think bringing human rights issues to the International Criminal Court won't help improve the human rights condition in a country," Hua told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.
	It isn't clear whether the resolution will be approved, ...

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